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Decisions In Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

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If given the opportunity would you take a shortcut even if it’s not the best option? There are some situations in which taking a shortcut such as Sparknotes isn’t as bad as some believe it is. In a time of stress and presure students are taking to the easy way out such as summaries. However while helpful sometimes, the summaries are not a great substitution for actually reading the book. Everyone has made a bad decision at some point in their life and regretted it. The thing is, what actually allows every creature on earth the ability to decide? The answer to that is survival; it’s natural instincts to want to thrive and do what’s best for one’s self. Humans use their past experiences and their judgement to make a decision rather it’s life …show more content…

While high schoolers aren’t fighting for their lives, they are however fighting for their future. The need to reach the top mimics the fight for survival seen in soldiers of war. Today .1 of a GPA could determine the track of one's life. To a young highschooler that is life or death. This stress invokes a natural response; do what you have to to survive. In the novel The Things They Carried there are many examples in which a simple decision lead to a series of unfortunate events. One of them being the mistake made by Lieutenant Jimmy Cross. The main man in charge of the platoon was tasked with finding a place for them to sleep for the night. In an effort to do so he lead his team into a poop field. "Some lieutenant," Sanders said. "Camps us in a toilet. Man don't know shit." "Nobody knew," Bowker said. "Maybe so, maybe not. Ten billion places we could've set up last night, the man picks a latrine." (The Things They Carried page 159) This decision lead to the death of one of his soldiers and ultimately the platoons distrust in him. For someone reading this book in school, a Sparknotes summary could be helpful but is using a summary worth the risk. If someone had a test on the chapter, does the summary really include enough to make up for not having actually read the

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In The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien exemplifies a central question in the book. The central question is, “Is war more good or bad?” To an extent, O’Brien answered that question. The answer is almost clear. O’Brien’s book on some his experiences in the Vietnam War captures nearly every detail need to answer the central question.

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Chapter seven in Tim O’Brien’s novel The Things They Carried focuses on telling a true war story and what it requires to be true. O’Brien begins with a soldier, Rat Kiley, discussing a letter he wrote to his dead friend’s sister. In this letter, he exaggerates his friend, Curt Lemon, which prompts O’Brien into questioning the truth. As he recounts the death of Lemon, O’Brien cannot remember what exactly happened to him; he understands what occurred and how, but fails to recall the details. So, he tells the story four ways, each focusing on one specific detail, like how the sun shined.

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The Things They Carried Tim O Brien's story "The Things They Carried" had a plentiful amount to offer to the readers. The book held unbelievable stories of the horrendous things that occurred within the war of Vietnam. However there are two metaphors in the story that Brien clouded within the story for the readers. One of them was Rat Kiley and the med kit he carried around and how he was a leader. The second one is Jimmy Cross and him caring the compasses and maps in order to lead his men to where they need to be.

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The Things They Carried, is a lot about what all of the men carried and what it all meant to each one of them. The author describing the material things wants to give a sense of the physical burden, but the guilt of men lost and the weight of responsibility was what truly weighed them down mentally and physically through the war. The author allows the reader to realize how each of the characters dealt with their time within the war and how they coped giving them a sense of hope to survive, and how they traveled through Vietnam carrying the weight of physical burdens and the weight of responsibility, loss and guilt and the memories they will carry for the rest of their lives.

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